America’s Toughest Milkman: Cop Delivers Milk To Watertown Family During Manhunt [Photo]

An image of a police officer delivering milk to a Watertown family stranded by Boston’s recent citywide lockdown has gone viral.

Watertown residents were instructed to sit tight in their homes during Friday’s unprecedented lockdown as police hunted for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

With Tsarnaev on the loose and families unable to venture outside their front doors, Brookline police officer John Bradley was called on to play the role of milkman. The strapping cop, who was still armed, was pictured delivering two gallons of milk in a bulletproof vest, sunglasses, and cap.

This simple act of compassion has caught the imagination of the Internet, and the picture has been widely circulated. Bradley has been dubbed “America’s toughest milkman.”

The officer’s identity was at first unknown, with the Boston Police Department (BPD) originally claiming the officer was part of their force. The BPD’s Twitter account tweeted the picture with the caption:

“BPD officer delivers milk to a family with young children in Waterdown during the lockdown.”

That tweet was shortly followed by a correction:

“This is a Brookline police department (BPD) officer. Apologies for confusion… Awesome job and photo!!”

Brookline is a small suburban town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts. It lies on the western edge of Boston, and has around 60,000 inhabitants.

The entire city of Boston and its surrounding suburbs was locked down Friday as thousands of police conducted a massive manhunt for 19-year-old Tsarnaev.

The alleged bomber was later found hiding in a boat in a Watertown backyard. He remains in a serious but stable condition at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston.

This is aBrookline Police Department (BPD) Officer.Apologies for confusion..Awesome job and photo!! twitter.com/Boston_Police/…

— Boston Police Dept. (@Boston_Police) April 21, 2013